I spend Christmas week sick with tonsillitis. It was so bad that I didn’t manage to eat anything for 5 day and missed out on the best thing of Christmas, the food! Finally, just before 7PM on Boxing Day I let Téa take me to an after hours GP, 20 minutes from our house.
The service at the after hours GP was great! We didn’t need an appointment and there was only 3 people waiting ahead of us. We waited about 40 minutes to been seen and the quality of the Doctor was amazing. She actually cared about me and the rest of the family. She checked everybody out to make sure they weren’t as sick as me and then she gave me a booster injection of antibiotics for no extra charge because the pills she prescribed wouldn’t take effect for a day or two! The visit cost more then my regular GP but I’m sure I would have paid double for it!
Compare that to my regular GP.
Téa, feeling sick herself, tried to make an appointment at our regular Doctors the day after. Firstly she was told that she would have to wait three days (She never went to the Dr’s because by the time the 3 days were up she felt good enough to not go!). Secondly if she had gone she would have been met with a challenge like this.
Our local GP has about 12 Dr’s names on the front of the building but there are only ever 2 or 3 there. Even though you have an appointment that you have been waiting for for days you are still made to wait for upwards of an hour! It’s easy to sit down in the waiting room and think that even though there are 30 people waiting there are so many Dr’s that you wont be waiting to long. It’s not till you notice that only 3 Dr’s ever come out, calling patients names, that you realize that everybody is there to see the same Dr as you!
Finally you get to see your Dr and he has exactly 2 minutes with you which he spends thinking about something or someone else! Its rushed beyond belief.
At the end you pay almost as much as if you went to the after hours GP but you have this feeling that something was lacking. Service and consideration maybe?
I remember when I was talking to the after hours GP she said that she would send her report to my regular GP. Well I don’t think I want my regular GP! I want the after hours GP as my regular GP!
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January 3rd, 2008 at 9:49 pm
First of all, BOO! for getting sick over Christmas. Nothing sucks worse (except maybe getting 2 presents: Chocolate (which I can’t eat) and solar lights for the back yard, which is now completely limestoned and has nowhere to actually stick them - thanks for nothing, wretched family!).
We have found after hours GPs to be quite good - both the one in Maylands and the one next to Swan Hospital - though it’s an expensive hobby.
Oh, Madame2Bar and I gave each other a tent. That makes 3 presents, one of which I paid for myself.
January 4th, 2008 at 1:16 pm
Not only did the After Hours GP check Jason over and prescribe him stuff, she checked Jules’ ear, and my throat, and would’ve quite happily written all of us scripts if we needed it.
Unlike our GP, who we pay $60 to see, we have to book appointments for each person. So, if I need a new prescription and Jules needs a shot, thats $120 for 20 minutes, of which we spend 5 minutes, plus the $100 in prescriptions…. and you do begin to wonder…after a 1hr wait… what exactly you are paying for.
I couldn’t believe that I couldnt get in, with both me and Jules really sick and in need of antibiotics, that we couldnt get in for 2 minutes and some penicillin. Bleh.
January 5th, 2008 at 1:35 am
Maybe it’s the exchange rates and suchlike, but it certainly makes me glad of being able to just go to our local doctor and not have to pay silly cash. The quality of serviceis what you’d expect, but there you go.
Actually, I’m even more glad of the fact I’ve not been there in years - the last time was a few years ago for pre-travel jabs, and the time before that was even further in the past.
Of course, now I’ve said that I’m doomed.